Christianity, Islam are focus for Nashotah House Convocation

[ENS, Wisconsin] “Worldwide Christianity and the Encounter with Islam” will be the theme of Nashotah House’s annual Academic Convocation on November 12.

Nashotah House located in Waukesha County, in Wisconsin, is an Episcopal seminary founded in 1842 that prepares men and women for parish ministry and for other forms of lay and ordained ministry.

Leading lectures and multimedia presentations for the convocation will be Baroness Caroline Cox, deputy speaker of the British House of Lords; Bishop Benjamin Kwashi of Jos in Nigeria; and the Rev. Canon Patrick Sookhdeo, director of the Barnabas Fund (UK) and author/lecturer on Islam, multiculturalism and race.

All three speakers along with Daniel R. Jones, organist and choirmaster at St. Michael and All Angel’s Church, in Denver, will be receiving honorary doctorates. The Rev. John Alexander and the Rev. Bryce McProud will be conferred Master of Sacred Theology degrees.

For more information and for luncheon reservations, call Sandy Mills at 262/646-6508.

John Updike to speak November 18 at St. Bartholomew’s, New York

[ENS, New York] The Center for Religious Inquiry (CRI) at St. Bartholomew’s Church continues its fall semester on November 18, at 7:30 pm with John Updike.

Updike, one of America’s widely admired and read writers was the winner of the Pulitzer prize for his novels Rabbit is Rich (1981) and Rabbit at Rest (1990.) He also received the White House Medal for Humanities in November 2003.

In an autobiographical piece, “The Dogwood Tree: A Boyhood,” he called sex, art and religion “the three great secret things” in the human experience. In John Updike And Religion (a collection of essays dealing with Updike’s religious vision), James Yerkes wrote “the religious consciousness in Updike make may best characterized as a sense of an unavoidable, unbearable, and unbelievable Sacred Presence.”

Eucharist is from 6:00-6:45pm.

Note: The following titles are available from the Episcopal Book Resource Center, 815 Second Ave., New York, NY 10017; 800-334-7626; http://www.episcopalbookstore.org/.

• SHEER CHRISTIANITY: Conjecture on a Catechism by Sam Portaro, Cowley Publications http://www.cowley.org/, Cambridge Massachusetts, 2004  $15.95  pages 205

           From the publishers: Calling upon teachers G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis, Sam Portaro wades into the abyss of confronting a life of faithfulness in a world where the Church has created a dictionary unintelligible to anyone not part of itself. Acknowledging it a risky adventure to attempt to put into printed words his faith, Portaro steps boldly onto the pages of Sheer Christianity: Conjectures on a Catechism.

            Portaro is an Episcopal priest, a chaplain at the University of Chicago, and a noted contemporary thinker.

• GREAT POWER: A 31-Day Devotional, by J.I. Packer compiled by Beth Nethery Feia, Servant Publications  Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1997, $9.99,  pages 139

          From the publishers: To know God is our highest goal and deepest longing. “There is no greater theme to study, no greater good to enjoy,” writes Dr. J. I. Packer, a respected evangelical theologian. Compiled by veteran editor Beth Nethery Feia, these 31 devotions will bring you closer to God. Each one highlights an aspect of the character of God: his sovereignty, his wisdom, his majesty, his reliability, his fatherhood, and much more. Lyrics from beloved hymns round out each selection. These devotional readings are “classic Packer.”

          Packer teaches systematic and historical theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. His many books include “Rediscovering Holiness,”  “Knowing God,” and “Keep in Step with the Spirit.”